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Is the seated-centered solo listening to music a dated tech?

Is the seated-centered solo listening to music a dated tech? Is the design of modern loudspeakers that facilitates stereo wrong? Are we surfing a compromised tech please recall early 3 channel was superior they used stereo because it was a compromise? I have worked with a research group that used MRIs and sound to light up areas of catatonic people’s brains the research showed that higher quality playback lit up more areas but that stereo caused the brain to work harder is this a source of listening fatigue? After all, we are processing 2 unnatural sources that trick the mind into perceiving a sound field wouldn’t it be better to just have a sound field that actually existed? Stereo is a unnatrual way to listen to music its something that sound doesn’t do. Real music floods a space in all directions stereo design requires beaming and narrow dispersion to form an image is this just wrong? Mono had benefits over stereo modern loudspeaker design can make one speaker with a 360d radiation pattern that can form a soundstage for listeners almost anywhere in a room yet we still sit mostly alone seated dead center not wanting to move much because the image collapses just all seems wrong to me today. The more I experiment with non-traditional sound reproduction the more right it feels to me and those hearing it. Music should exist in a real space not a narrow sliver of it.

128x128johnk
johnk's avatar
johnk OP
1,973 posts
 

MBL are wonderful sounding I agree with what you say. At my home, I have many loudspeakers but the massive horns with multicells tend to be the best sound anywhere you are they sound great full, detailed, and easy to listen to but massively dynamic like real music is. When on even when you are in another room they have a near-real sound. I had more than one when walking up to my home asking if I had a live band playing. Even one in mono is an amazing thing and bests more costly audiophile small boxes on stand systems. This has made me rethink how audiophiles approach music reproduction after decades of buying some of the best most highly-rated audiophile products.

russ69's avatar
russ69
3,360 posts
 

Have fun with omni loudspeakers, some create a sense of space. But the best sound stage loudspeakers for me have been direct radiators, perhaps that is because that's how recordings are mixed in the studio.  

johnk's avatar
johnk OP
1,973 posts
 

A lot of studios used multicellular horn systems. I have many pictures of famous artists sitting in front of Altecs etc in the studio. 

ghdprentice
6,442 posts
 

I think the crux is that one must strike a balance in technical complexity and the resultant sound. In today’s world that balance… when high performance is desired is two channel. The additional equipment and resultant setup greatly increases the complexity and reduces the sound quality or vastly increases the cost. More channels, more cost at the same quality level.

I remember quadraphonic came and went in a flash.

johnk's avatar
johnk OP
1,973 posts
 

What I am suggesting is a one-speaker approach, not a multichannel approach.

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